


a stampede of horses

by afearsomecritter (jsaer)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), UnDeadwood (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Gore, Supernatural Elements, UnDeadwood Mini-series (Critical Role)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:33:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22154827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jsaer/pseuds/afearsomecritter
Summary: The fort burns behind him.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 23





	a stampede of horses

\--

“Run,” says the creature, towering and many legged.

Matthew does. 

_“I saw… a stampede of horses.”_

The fort is burning. World shattering bangs and cracks means munitions is burning now too. Everything around him is heat and fire and screaming and agony slicing up his side and he is running and so is everyone else.

There are things in the fire, in the spaces between, massive and twisted with too many limbs and they are screaming too, delighted shrieks and he can hear l a u g h i n g-

He didn’t know fire could be so loud. 

He finds his horse. Breaks down the stable doors too, as many as he can. He’s always liked horses, liked them better than people and the world is burning and screaming and he’s already a coward for running (bodies strewn across the ground like a butcher’s discard bucket, fat and innards mixing with blood and mud) so he might as well make sure more things can run. Others are grabbing horses even as he flings himself up onto his darling girl, her brown hide red in the firelight.

_“I saw..._ some _men astride those horses, wounded, bleeding.”_

The night sky itself is red, smoke billowing up to hide the stars even as sparks soar skyward in vicious mockery, pinpricks of dying light. The moon is hazy, dull disk between smoke and clouds. He can feel hot blood seeping from whatever wound he has in his side, staining his horse’s side as they flee. There are others around him. There are fewer, now.

_“ I saw the moon above as I thundered through the night, on my own horse.”_

His panting breath coughs and heaves with the thundering hoofbeats beneath him. There is something behind him, and they mustn’t stop. There is something hunting them, and they mustn’t stop. 

The world starts to go. Strange. 

_“I saw the wilderness, and barren townscapes as I moved through them.”_

He is galloping over mountains he is galloping over plains he has not been running far enough for either but he cannot stop.

His horse begins to falter. Her flanks are heaving, and he cannot feel his wound. He lets her stop, and slides off. 

_"……...and I saw a chapel, with a preacher in front of it”_

Something is chasing him.

He stands, still bleeding, and turns around.

\--


End file.
